A tragic Real Life example, the midnight release in Aurora, Colorado was interrupted by a 24-year-old neuroscience student named James Holmes (who later identified himself as "The Joker") kicking open an emergency exit, entering one of the theaters and opening fire on the crowd, killing 12 and injuring dozens. Thankfully, the police response was literally on the order of seconds, and hundreds (maybe thousands) of people were evacuated to safety.

The worst detail of the story was learning that the crowd did not immediately react to the intruder as they believed it was a stunt for the premise of the film. It was only until seeing that the bullets were not blanks could they fathom it was a real shooting.

As did three or four other young men. One's mother, upon hearing that he had been killed, instantly knew that he had put himself between the bullets and his fiancee.

It doesn't matter that you know full well that he'll get better, but watching Batman utterly beaten by Bane and tossed like trash into a pit while his city is ransacked, to see theBadass NormalSuper Hero defeated in such a way, was harrowing.

Of course, this does nicely set up the Manly Tears when Bruce climbs out the pit, returns to Gotham and once again dons the cape and cowl as if nothing had happened. Batman's sheer resilience is an inspiration to all.

On the meta side, what this film could've been. In a press conference before Batman Begins premiered, Christopher Nolan had a strong idea and plan for the next two sequels. The first of them became The Dark Knight, the second regarding The Joker going on trial and the consequences of it. Not to say this movie wasn't great, but...damn.

Every line out of Alfred's mouth. All of them.

Special mention goes to his speech to Bruce about how if Bruce takes up the cowl again, Alfred will leave, because that's the only thing he can possibly do to get Bruce to listen to him, and to him tearfully apologizing to Martha and Thomas Wayne's graves for failing to save Bruce.

Even with what happens later, Miranda asking Bruce to run away with her, only for him to leave to fight Bane, definitely counts. He gets a moment of happiness for the first time in years, and soon after receives a brutal beatdown from Bane, and gets separated from her and Gotham.

Also, when Batman has escaped from the prison and gives Selina the Bat Pod so she can get through the blocked tunnel, she pleads for him to come away with her. She says it's because there's nothing worth saving anymore, but you can tell she doesn't want him to get hurt again. The fact Batman is going through with it anyway, and that he still has faith in Selina despite what she did to him, no doubt contributed to her Big Damn Heroes moment.

The following exchange is especially poignant.

Selina: You don't owe these people any more. You've already given them everything.

Batman: Not everything. Not yet.

Talia's death. As Batman's Evil Counterpart, she was so obsessed with her goal that she went to her death without any concern. Just like how Alfred feared Bruce would destroy himself as Batman.

The reveal that Commissioner Gordon's family left him after the events of The Dark Knight and his obvious anger at himself over having to honor the madman who nearly killed his son (mentioned in his resignation speech taken by Bane).

The morphine-addicted doctor in Bane's prison joining in the chanting from his cell when Bruce makes his final attempt to climb out. When he hears the inmates cheer after Bruce's successful leap to safety, he's in tears.

Blake's reaction after the skittish cop blew the bridge, nearly killed Blake and pretty much ruined any chance of anyone to get out of the city safely, simply because he wouldn't listen to Blake or what he had to say. It's basically the reason he may or may not have taken the mantle of the Bat up and definitely the reason why he quit the force.

Right after that, he coaxes the children back onto the bus, promising that they'll definitely be shielded from the blast and everything will be just fine. The man who was helping him protests that there is nowhere left to run and what he's doing is stupid because the bomb is nuclear. Blake, furious, tells him that he refuses to allow the children to die unhappy and hopeless. It crosses over a little with heartwarming, and shows us exactly the kind of person Blake is.

Bruce Wayne's fake funeral.

Gordon's quoting of select lines from Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities simply caps the heart-wrenching moment, a fitting tribute to Batman's decades of efforts and sacrifice. Sure, he didn't die, but it's all merited.

"I see a beautiful city and a brilliant people rising from this abyss, and, in their struggles to be truly free, in their triumphs and defeats, through long years to come... I see the lives for which I lay down my life, peaceful, useful, prosperous and happy... I see that I hold a sanctuary in their hearts, and in the hearts of their descendants, generations hence... It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known." — Sydney Carton, A Tale of Two Cities

A subtle one, but the point where Bane is reading out Gordon's speech and he calls Harvey Dent "that madman who tried to kill my boy." It's understandable as Dent did go off the deep end and try to kill Gordon's son and they had to cover his other murders for ten years. But the fact that the man who did so much good before he went insane will only be remembered as a madman is really depressing.

Admit it, when you realized that despite every good soul suffering, they get some sort of lovely consolation (Gordon getting a peaceful Gotham to police, Lucius and Alfred learning that Bruce survives, Bruce and Selina having a happy time together, and John Blake bequeathed the Batcave), you must have felt that swelling in your eyes and inside your chest...a fitting end for an expansive saga.

"A hero can be anyone, even a man doing something as simple and reassuring as putting a coat on a young boy's shoulders to let him know that the world hadn't ended."

Just the fact that an iconic character like Batman would tell an average Joe like Gordon that he considers him to be his idea of a hero is worth getting all teary for.

Fox questioning the engineers in the ending montage about how he could have fixed the Bat's autopilot. He clearly feels responsible for Bruce's death.

"Please, I just need to know what I could have done to fix it."

Batman's faked death had me wailing in the theater. Knowing that Gotham's hero, a mere man who turned tragedy into strength and had become a beacon of hope in an otherwise hopeless situation, had died metaphorically certainly brought out more than a few tears. Plus for those who've grown up and loved Batman (like myself) this hurt even more to see your hero die.

When Batman realises he's been beaten and betrayed by someone he thought he could depend on. He's so saddened by this he actually drops the Bat-voice and talks with his real voice, begging for mercy even though he knows he'll get none.

Community

Tropes HQ

TVTropes is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available from thestaff@tvtropes.org. Privacy Policy